


Dear Tetsurou,

by peculiairyties (ItsAiryBro)



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: 100 percent pure undiluted Sap, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Childhood Friends, Cyclops Kuroo, Epistolary, Gryphon Daichi, M/M, Mentions of childhood bullying, mentions of body-image issues
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-12
Updated: 2019-05-12
Packaged: 2020-03-01 09:30:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,144
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18797638
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ItsAiryBro/pseuds/peculiairyties
Summary: "I promised to you a long time ago that I would come straight to your side once my ten years of adventuring were complete, and you seemed dubious. I told you a promise from a gryphon was as good as etching words into stone and you still didn’t seem fully convinced. But I think enough time has passed for you to know gryphons are a stubborn lot and I especially can be quite bull headed at times.And gryphons nevergo back on our word."For KuroDai Week 2k19, Day 7:Just married/Childhood friends





	Dear Tetsurou,

**Year 1**

Hello Kuroo,

How have you been doing? I am well, I am still getting used to the guild and all its members. It’s a reasonably small one, only about 30 or so people, but they are each so different from each other. I feel quite adrift, and my efforts to be amiable aren’t really doing much. I’m going to try and find someone who will teach me to fight with a weapon— maybe a sword, or a spear? I want to learn to wield the sword so one day I can fight with one that you have forged.

I miss the village and my parents dearly. I also miss you. It feels so strange to be so far away from everyone I know, it feels almost like a do-over of my life. It is a little bit like that, I suppose, but well. I hope you’re okay and that no one is giving you trouble. If someone is, you should tell Yaku so he can hex them for you. They deserve it.

Give my regards to your family. I’ll look forward to your reply.

Daichi

♡

**Year 2**

Dear Kuroo,

Thank you for writing to me regularly, it makes me very happy to get your letters. I re-read a lot of them over and over again when I feel homesick. Don’t worry though, I’m not homesick enough to quit the guild. The older members have begun warming up to me, and I actually found a teacher who agreed to take me on as a sword fighting apprentice. Mr. Ukai is old but he’s very sprightly and very strict. He’s a good teacher though, and I think I’m improving under his tutelage. We had two new members join the guild who are around our age, and they’re a lot of fun. They’re not brothers or anything but they still have an almost unnatural instinct for each other. Oikawa and Iwaizumi are their names. Oikawa uses daggers and Iwaizumi uses a spear, and they fight as a duo and are fearsome. I’m excited to learn to fight at their side— I think we would make an excellent team. I hear there might be a few other members joining the guild soon. I wonder what they are going to be like.

Tell me more about the baby ducks you rescued. How are they now? Do they still follow you around in the garden? I hope they’re growing up big and strong.

Looking forward to your reply.

Yours,  
Daichi

♡

**Year 3**

Dear Kuroo,

I’m so sorry about the last letter you received. Oikawa found me writing a letter to you and ranted to me at length about how unromantic I was being and set about writing one that he deemed was ‘the type of missive that will woo a person off their feet’ to show me how it should be done. I didn’t know he ended up actually sending that letter to you. He wouldn’t tell me what was in it either— I hope it wasn’t anything too upsetting or strange. I sincerely apologize. I told him I was very displeased with him, and so did Iwaizumi, so I think he felt chastised enough to not do it again. He’s the meddlesome sort but he has good intentions most of the time, so I didn’t yell at him. Are you proud of me for restraining my temper?

Ever since he mentioned that, however, I have been thinking about our letters, and us. I think I understand now why you turned me down three years ago. You were right, sixteen was quite young to be making the type of commitment I wanted us to make, and I don’t know how but you correctly assumed if we got bonded I would never want to leave your side. And while I don’t think I could ever resent you for anything, I understand why you feared that I would. I also have a suspicion that you only laid down the 10-year time condition in the hopes of me eventually losing interest in you and going my own way. If that was your intention, I’m very sorry to inform you that I fully aim to complete my ten years of adventuring and return straight to you, and kiss you senseless to prove my point. If that was, however, your way of turning me down gently, then please tell me so. I will bear no ill will toward you, and treat you as a dear friend and nothing more.

Looking forward to your reply.

Yours,  
Daichi

♡

**Year 4**

Dearest Tetsurou,

I miss you unbearably. You might have heard already, but last month I travelled to our village to see my parents and the others. I did not come to see you because I felt that might be breaking my promise to you. I didn’t even go to the marketplace to catch a glimpse of you. It was tough but I convinced myself it would be all the more sweeter when I finally see you after ten years. I have become much more patient in the last few years, it seems.

It felt so good to visit. My parents looked well and while you reassure me of that with every letter you send me, it was still nice to observe in person. The village is as cheerful as ever too, for which I am glad.

Remember when we were children, we would walk hand in hand to the riverbank to look for colourful pebbles? You were always so good at finding the prettiest ones. I remember we wandered off alone and Yaku tried to follow us and accidentally knocked into a nest of green wasps. We all got stung that day but you were the only one who didn’t cry. I don’t think I ever saw you cry as a child. But I know you did cry, because sometimes you would mysteriously vanish and return with a reddened eye and wet patches on your shirt, but your smile would be warm and sweet, even if your nose was snotty and your voice was strained.

I don’t know if I ever apologized to you for not noticing sooner— the bullies I mean. I knew offhand from my parents that the village people didn’t take kindly to cyclops, but I didn’t think much about it. No one bothered us when we played together and so I assumed everything was okay. I should have asked you the first time you showed up to play with skinned knees and palms. There was a lot of times I noticed something was off about you but never did anything about it. I should have been a better friend to you and I’m sorry I wasn’t, and that it took you almost getting drowning for me to realize how blind I was being to your situation. I’m sorry to be dredging up old memories like this, but I realized I never apologized to you for what happened then, and I desperately want to make up for that now. A few words on a piece of paper may not be worth much, but I request you use it as a placeholder for now until I can beg your forgiveness in person.

I promise, for as long as I live, I will strive to ensure you never cry another tear. Not of sadness, at least. Happy tears are acceptable.

This letter has gone on for long enough, I think. I’ll sign off now. Remember, I’m coming back in 6 years, so please wait for me, Tetsu.

All my love,  
Daichi

♡

**Year 5**

My dear Tetsurou,

I am so pleased to hear you’re doing well, and that your attempts at forging armour are fruitful. You are an exceptionally quick study, so I’m not quite sure why you are so surprised at your efforts being successful. In any case, I am very proud and happy for you, my love.

About the other issue that you were concerned about— yes, Gryphons as a species have a hearty appetite for sexual pursuits (to put it delicately), but we are loyal creatures by default and do not have any trouble forgoing such things as long as we need to. I appreciate your concern, but unless you give me explicit permission and tell me in no uncertain terms that you would not be bothered if I were to, ah, indulge myself, so to speak, with another person, I won't even consider the idea. As of yet I haven’t ever thought of something like that, in any case. If you would like to satisfy your needs with someone, I wouldn’t mind that either. But don’t go falling in love with anyone else, that would break my heart.

I’m only joking. I know you would not do such a thing.

Love always,  
Daichi

PS. I have been nothing but honest with you since we started writing to each other. I know you are not the kind of person to lie either; you never were, not even when you knew you’d get into trouble, but I am afraid you might lie to me to spare my feelings. So please, if you do fall in love with someone else, Tetsurou, please don’t let me hold you back. I only ever want you to be happy, and I would never stand in your way if you would rather be with someone else. I only request that you write to me, so I can ~~well there’s not much I can do is there~~ wish you well.

♡

**Year 6**

Darling Tetsurou

How have you been? I haven’t heard from you in a while and my heart aches to know if you are doing well. Are you content, are you taking care of yourself? If you need anything, anything at all, write to me and I will do my best to bring it to you. I hope you haven’t forgotten that I would lay the world at your feet if you wished for it. I know you won’t, my dear one, because that is not the type of person you are, but to me you deserve not only the entirety of the earth, but the sun, moon, and the stars as well.  
I’ve been having fun. We’re adventuring further east this time and I am looking forward to seeing what it is like in those lands.

We have two new guild members who have frightfully powerful explosion magic (when they can get it right, that is). With them we think we can take on more challenging, better-paying quests, and everyone is excited for it. But first, they need to learn to get along with the others, and to stop getting on our nerves. I wish you were here, we would all greatly benefit from your level-headed presence (and your extraordinary smithing). Can you believe it has been six years since I last saw you? Time flies but not as quickly as I would like for it to. I look forward to the day I can come home to you and brush your hair out of your face for you when your hands are occupied. I look forward to the day I can hold you in my arms and love you the way you deserve to be loved. I promise, when I come home, I’m going to kiss you till you go weak-kneed. Ah, I digress, but the sentiments are true.

Please write to me soon. Even my guild members are beginning to say I’m moping. I think Bokuto might just kidnap you and bring you to me, at this rate. (I wouldn’t stop him.)

Missing you fiercely,  
Daichi

♡

**Year 7**

My sweet Tetsurou,

Your last letter reached me a little late because of all the traveling we were doing. I am glad to hear you are doing well and that business is steady. I am very well, considering all the ruckus we tend to get into. The last quest was challenging but satisfying to complete, and our disaster duo seem to have finally gotten the hang of their magic and helped tremendously in the last battle. Of course, Oikawa decided to throw a party and get everyone drunk. Tetsu my love, just remember: if you are at a party and teenaged explosion magic users are consuming alcohol, leave the party. Suffice to say, I did not, and I learned my lesson the hard way. Don’t worry, no one got hurt. We are however missing the roof of our guild.

I ate a fruit called a ‘honey melon’, and it was very sweet and tasty. I wanted to share it with you, so I’m sending you a seed I saved. Plant it and see if it takes in our kind of soil. I have a feeling it will, you have such a special way with plants after all.

I miss you dearly and wish I could come back sooner. I hope you’ve been remembering to eat on time, and that no one is giving you any trouble. I’ll fight them for you if they are, just send me word. I am not joking. I will march over the instant you send for me. My entire guild will probably also join me. They are understandably quite taken with you, I do talk about you all the time after all.

I look forward to your next letter.

All my heart,  
Daichi

♡

**Year 8**

My precious Tetsurou,

Congratulations on getting an apprentice! It just means your talent has been recognised and respected. I am sure you will make a fine teacher, and your student is lucky to have you. Don’t ever think you aren’t worthy of this, sweetheart, you are worth so much more than you would think. I will remind you as many times as I have to. I am so very proud of you and everything you do. I am amazed every day by everything you are, and I look forward to seeing everything you will become. I am sorry if I am being cloyingly sweet, dove, but Oikawa and Bokuto are apparently in love with each other (Yes, I am as surprised as I’m sure you are) and their flagrant displays of affection make me want to roll my eyes and toss them off the nearest cliff, but also make me incredibly jealous that they can hold and cherish the person they love when I can’t do so myself. Please don’t be upset— I am in no way laying blame, but merely stating my feelings on the matter. I adore you so much it frightens me sometimes. I constantly yearn to come home to you every day and hug you and hold you to my heart’s content. Do you feel the same way toward me, Tetsurou? Please, would you indulge me and tell me if you miss me, even if only a little? I recognize such overly sentimental words are not your style, so I don’t want you to needlessly trouble yourself, but I would be grateful for anything you choose to give me. I hope I am not being a bother.

Eternally yours,  
Daichi

♡

**Year 9**

My beloved Tetsurou,

Nine years have passed since I left home. Everyday I know with more and more certainty that I love you. You are the first person I think of when I wake in the morning and the first person I think of in happiness and sorrow. Through the years this feeling has only grown stronger with each passing day. Every day I offer gratitude to the gods for the fact that my affections are returned by you. I always say I look forward to the day that I can see you again, but finally that day seems tangible and not like some far off dream. I promised to you a long time ago that I would come straight to your side once my ten years of adventuring were complete, and you seemed dubious. I told you a promise from a gryphon was as good as etching words into stone and you still didn’t seem fully convinced. But I think enough time has passed for you to know gryphons are a stubborn lot and I especially can be quite bull headed at times.

And gryphons never go back on our word.

Please wait for me, just a little longer, my dear.

Yours till forever,  
Daichi

♡♡

Kuroo put down his hammer and sighed, wiping the sweat off his brow. It had been a while since he’d sent his letter to Daichi, and he wondered if he was off adventuring somewhere far away again. In the beginning, he’d used to worry about Daichi’s safety every time it took too long to get a reply, but somewhere along the way he’d accepted the fact that Daichi and his guild were strong, and that they would keep each other safe. He’d never told Daichi this, but the letter Oikawa had written him years ago promised that they’d make sure Daichi would come back to him at the end of ten years.

He believed in Daichi, and he believed in his guild.

He didn’t know how he’d feel about it when Daichi did come back to him though. He loved him so dearly and sincerely, and he knew his affections were very much returned, but would Daichi still love him when he saw him in person?

As the tenth year loomed closer and closer, Kuroo got more and more anxious. What if he looked different to what Daichi pictured in his head now? He’d been adorably soft faced and small as a teenager— about as adorable as a one-eyed demon could get, at least. But then he’d grown taller, and bonier, and his face had gotten sharper, and not at all like the person Daichi had fallen in love with a decade ago.

Daichi, on the other hand, had just grown more and more handsome, it seemed. They never really sent pictures to each other, they didn’t have the means for that, but Daichi had sent him one of his guild that had gotten printed in the local newspaper. Daichi had been off to the side, behind Hinata and Kageyama, so he could only see his shoulders and face, but that had been enough. Daichi had always been handsome, even as an adolescent, but age had taken those looks and refined them into something breathtaking, proud and defined, befitting a man of his nature.

Despite the new jawline and the intriguing scars, Daichi still had the same eyes— large, piercing, but so warm and kind.

Kuroo had fallen in love all over again.

Thoughts of Daichi’s eyes dissipated when he heard a knock at his workshop door.

Kuroo frowned and slipped his gloves off before grabbing a hammer. No one visited him at his workshop, and certainly not at so late an hour.

The door swung open before he could get to it though, and Kuroo looked at the figure at his doorway and dropped the hammer in shock, not believing what he was seeing.

“Hey, Tetsurou.”

The voice was more mature, deeper and more even-toned than the one in his memories, but the way it said his name was the same: fond, with a teasing undercurrent.

“Daichi?” He blinked, roughly shoving his messy hair out of his eye.

“The one and only.” Daichi laughed, stepping into the workshop. Kuroo started to walk towards him but stopped short.

“Daichi, your eye…”

Instead of looking upset about it, however, Daichi rubbed the strap of his eyepatch from forehead to ear and grinned brightly, showing off a row of shiny, pointed teeth with a gap at one end. “Yeah, sorry for not telling you about that,” he said, sheepish. “But look, we match now!”

Kuroo let out a surprised laugh that turned into a yelp when Daichi strode forward to pick him up and spin him around. Kuroo clutched his shoulders for dear life as the room spun, feeling Daichi’s chest move with his own booming laughter. He was filled with too many feelings, but the primary one was disbelief, closely followed by heartache.

“Hello, Tetsurou,” Daichi said again, setting him back down on his feet. He was only a little shorter than Kuroo now, but he’d bulked up considerably, and now that he was standing in front of him, Kuroo could clearly see his arms and shoulders bulging with hard-earned muscle and strength.

“Daichi, I can't believe it,” he said, breathless and awed. “It's you.”

“It’s me,” Daichi agreed, reaching out to touch Kuroo’s hair, but for some reason he stopped midway and let his hand fall back down. Kuroo wished he could reach out and hold it, but he was unsure how to initiate, or even if he should.

“So, it’s been ten years.”

Kuroo nodded and looked down, letting his hair flop over his face again. “Oh,” he said, realizing what the date was. “Time flies.”

Daichi smiled at him before the expression morphed into something a little regretful. “I suppose I should have written you before I left. You don’t seem very happy to see me.”

It wasn’t unhappiness, Kuroo wanted to say. “You came back,” he said instead, staring at his feet. “Are you going to stay?”

“Of course I am! I always told you that, didn’t I? Once I came back I wasn’t going to leave.”

Kuroo looked at him, feeling the smallest bit of hope resurface. “Really?”

Diachi took a step toward him, confusion written all over his face. “Where’s this coming from? Tetsurou, did you never believe anything I wrote in those letters? Why are you asking me this when you know how I feel?”

Kuroo folded his arms in front of him. “I did believe you! I always knew you’d come back. I just didn’t know if you would stay.”

Kuroo watched through his bangs as Daichi’s began pacing. “Why not? Did I do something to make you think that?”

Kuroo hugged himself tighter. “The last time you saw me was when I was 16. I’ve grown now and— well. Look at me. I’m a cyclops. We just get uglier with time. There’s a reason we’re reclusive and don’t have many friends.” He sighed. “I just have a hard time believing you want to stay. Why would you, when you have such a wonderful life with so many friends! Why would you want to give all that up for—for me?”

Daichi’s feet stopped pacing. “That’s insulting, don’t you think?”

Kuroo shrank away. “I’m sorry, Daichi. I really don’t mean to insult you. But all my life, I’ve been kept at a distance. I don’t blame them, I suppose I do look creepy. I just wasn’t really expecting you to- to actually still want me, after you looked at me and realised I wasn’t the person you imagined me to be.”

Daichi sighed. “If you were so unsure about me, then what about all those letters? Why did you write them to me if you didn’t think I’d return your feelings?”

Kuroo covered his face with his hands. “How could I not?” he murmured. “I do love you, after all.”

He heard Daichi walk closer.

“Look at me, please?”

Kuroo lowered his hands to see that Daichi had extended his own clawed one, holding so it was directly in his line of sight.

He blinked back the prickling in his eye and placed his hand in Daichi’s, and let him pull him closer till he was standing in the circle of his arms, chests pressed together.  
“Won’t you look at me, Tetsurou?”

When Kuroo finally worked up the courage to look at Daichi, he was utterly floored to see Daichi’s uncovered eye welling with tears.

“Daichi! Why are you crying?” he fretted, hands hovering around his face uselessly, till Daichi gently pressed one of them to his cheek and leaned into it. Kuroo chewed on the inside of his cheek, not knowing what to say.

“I’m just a little overcome that I can finally get to hold you like I always dreamed of.” Daichi opened his eye to look at him through tears, and Kuroo felt his heart seize. “I’ve missed you, Tetsurou.”

Kuroo threw his arms around Daichi’s shoulders and squeezed, feeling the sobs he’d been trying to contain break free. “I missed you too!” he said, words thick and sniffly. “I missed you every day!”

“I’m back now,” Daichi soothed his palms down Kuroo’s back and he swallowed a cough. “I’m back, just like I promised.”

“Are you really going to stay?” he asked, needing to hear one more time, just one more time, that Daichi really was going to stay.

“I’d like to, if you also want me to?”

Kuroo pulled back from the hug and stared at Daichi. “Of course I want you to stay!”

Daichi smiled and cupped his cheeks. “Alright then. I’ll stay.”

And then he kissed him, just like he promised.

\--  
♡

**Author's Note:**

> This is unbetaed. No Gods No Grammar Only KuroDai ✌️  
> I hope you liked it!


End file.
